The next generation of food treatment apparatus encompasses high tech utensils in order to facilitate the preparation of food, to save expensive time and extra labour.
A desired slice geometry of eggplant, potato, apple or other food products, cutting thereof without comminution, may be obtained by virtue of the present invention.
The user of the processing center is required interactively to enter selected mode of cutting and 3 dimensions of the products to be cut. The data is stored in apparatus memory for automatic program execution. The present invention, which intends to overcome traditional methods of preparation associated with food handling and time wasting will result in fast, fresh and tasty food. Fast food, saturated with canned goods, constitutes a significant part of our every day food menu. This type of food has an advantage due to its simple preparation process, which is cheap and time saving. However, esthetic shape and fresh aroma of the food product are missing.
The proposed apparatus saves extended preparation time, caused by manual cutting of food products and involving plates, knives, trays and other accessories that will remain nostalgic memories. After the cut process is terminated, pressing of a button will effect liquid or powdered seasoning executed automatically, for example by virtue of a seasoning center as per pending patent application IL122104.
Significant profit for restaurants can be achieved, where clients can obtain their favourite tasty salad. The variety of products which a restaurant would be able to offer its clients, by virtue of the present invention, will be significantly superior to what is available at present. Sanitary processing of vegetables and fruits will be made possible by the present process, thus avoiding human involvement.
We do not know similar food centers for food preparation.
Of those known in the art, food centers are capable of performing only a minor part of the various activities and operations which are possible with the apparatus of the present invention:
Those known in the art devices usually comprise a cabinet provided with a rotary blade suitable for slicing of 2 or 3 products. The sliced food pieces are obtained without the possibility to predetermine shape and size. Sometimes the cut products are split into unesthetic shapes. At the end of the cutting process, the products have to be removed and placed in a separate container for seasoning and mixing. It is impossible to prepare a fruit salad (due to total squashing of the fruits) or get a potato chips with desired shape and size.
There are known also manually operated devices for different activities: special slice cutter, potato slicer, etc. Furthermore there is also the electrical food processor or mixer with different attachments enabling convienent mixing. However, this processor has significant disadvantages in comparison to the proposed invention:
1. The known food processor comprises a working metal disk provided with a groove above its knife. Applying pressure on the food product to be cut against the disk will cause a slice cut depending on the width of the groove. For a longer or narrower width of slice, the user has to open the food processor housing and to replace the working disk. Therefore the cutting possibilities are limited according to the number of available disks.
xe2x80x83The size of a slice is also limited by the narrow entry to the cutting device, thus precluding the possibility to slice an entire egg, eggplant, etc. The narrow entry also causes damage to the food product(partial cut), and thus an unesthetic appearance. The above activity encompasses immense additional manual work and environmental disturbances (kitchen utensils and cleaning).
2. In the known in the art devices there is no possibility to obtain a predetermined length or height of a slice cut, neither the possibility for obtaining potato chips with a predetermined and uniform size. Salad products cut by a known food processor are mainly split in random and non-uniform shapes. The traditional food processor causes comminution of the food products, associated with a total disruption of the normal structure. There is no possibility of a uniform cut.
3. The known food processor can process a product only when it is manually pressed by a plastic pusher against the cutting means. There is no possibility for automatic feeding of various food products within the cutting zone without human intervention.
4. The traditional food processor cannot be programmed for a plurality of processing activities, either associated with one product or various products. Cutting of cabbage into thin slices needs a dedicated slicing disk which differs from that required for cutting eggplant into slices, thus additional time consuming operation is required for replacing the disk.
5. Another disadvantage of the known processor is associated with the lack of possibility of connecting a manual food processor to an automatic computerized seasoning center, as per my pending patent application IL122104. Therefore, additional labour and time is required for adding taste to food.